


Diplomatic Measures

by nymphiearon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: BAMF Nico di Angelo, Nico di Angelo Goes to Hogwarts, Nico is a Dork, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Ron Weasley is a Good Friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26038882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymphiearon/pseuds/nymphiearon
Summary: After Tom Riddle's death souls are in disarray. Hades has requested Nico's help in separating those who should stay in the mortal realm as ghosts and those who should stay in the underworld as souls. Nico goes to Hogwarts to join the returning students in their eighth year to help Thanatos and Hades, and to create connections and friendships with the wizarding worldI'm working on creating a consistent updating schedule! :)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 96





	1. Chapter one - Prequel

**Author's Note:**

> This is just the prequel

“I’m sorry I think I misheard you. You want me to do what?” 

“I want you to go to a wizarding school in Scotland with the students returning for eighth year.”

“So I did hear you right. Great.”

The day had barely even begun and Nico already had a headache. He was having a pleasant breakfast with the Apollo cabin when Chiron had asked him to follow him to the Big House, all to find an Iris Message from Hades before he'd even finished his cereal. Demeter would be so proud. 

Hades stood in a black suit. When Nico focused on the shoulders he could see translucent faces, contorted in pain. He made an imposing figure, even in the mist of the IM. As Nico drew closer he saw that Hades' eyes had dark circles under them and his hair looked messy. Never a good sign for a god. 

"Father." Nico nodded and felt a sense of dread settle in his stomach. Hades didn't look well. 

"Nico. There's unrest among the dead. The wizards, you’ve spoken to them yes? From Hecate’s world." Nico nodded, thinking back to when he’d met the three tricksters and redheaded witch in Elysium, close as best friends could be. 

Though Nico had mostly taken up residence at Camp Half-Blood with the occasional trip to Camp Jupiter, he still made trips down to the underworld often. It could be hard to explain he joined his father and Persephone for Sunday dinners, most of the camp thought he was making trips to McDonald's. Always something to be said for the versatility of shadow travel, Nico supposed. Whoopee. 

Often when he traveled down to the underworld he'd take the long way, through Elysium, to get to Hades' palace. Contrary to popular belief, Nico was pretty good at making friends. Especially when you meet said friends by being the only living person around. It tends to be a good ice breaker. 

In the midst of his frequent trips, Nico had managed to collect a variety of spirit-friends. The four magic-users had become one of his favorite groups to drop in on. Without fail, everytime he stopped by they’d have a new story, either from their time in life or after death. 

His first meeting with them had been a fun filled, confused few minutes. You didn’t often meet stags in the underworld, and they didn’t like it much when you tried to feed them a happy meal. Nico wouldn’t be making that mistake again. Hades had cleared up the confusion, revealing the society of witches and wizards that, while originating in England, had grown throughout the world. These magic users had schools throughout different continents and countries, staying hidden from the mortals. It sounded a little bit like a cult to Nico, but he couldn’t really talk considering his family history, so more power to them. 

“There was one among them,” Hades' voice cut Nico from his thoughts, “he evaded Thanatos as long as he could. He created failsafes with the intent to reach immortality.” 

Nico inhaled sharply, “Tom. I remember the paperwork. He’s dead now?”

“Finally,” Hades sighed, eyes darkening in anger, “their world was nearly brought to its knees by his reign. With his death balance was restored, but so many died, and the absence of his soul split throughout the country has created a backlash in the afterlife.”

Nico realized distantly that he was sitting on the couch with Chiron setting a cup of tea in front of him. Later he’d remember to thank the centaur, at the moment all he could manage was a nod as shaking fingers brought it closer to sip. A backlash of confusion amongst souls could mean many things, from a little extra paperwork and judgment shifts, to wizards moving from ghosts, haunting their towns and school, to spirits dwelling in the underworld several times a day. If it was the former it might be a mild inconvenience, if it was the latter it could lead to rips in the realms that opened too fast for Thanatos to keep up. 

Nico was hoping for the former. Hades’ face told him it was the latter.

"I have a favor to ask of you, Nico. I need someone in the main disturbance area while Thanatos finds the souls that crossed into the underworld." 

Nico felt his stomach drop. Where exactly was he needed? For how long? The dead tended to not care that much when time was involved, it could be anywhere from a day to a year. Nico felt his voice desert him. He'd just gotten to a steady place within the camps and now he needed to do what?

Nico inhaled and straightened, forcing his words, "Of course Father. Where am I needed?"

Relief shone in Hades eyes and the souls swimming along his coat's shoulders seemed to quiet. "Thank you Nico," Nico almost felt guilty for hoping Hades would change his mind, hearing the sincerity in his words.

"The unrest and confusion is centralized at the wizarding school in Scotland. I need you to join those returning for their 8th year. Make connections with the magic users, learn from the ghosts and make sure they're not moving between realms."

Nico blinked. He'd never felt like he'd been dropped in cold water from just a conversation. First time for everything.


	2. Chapter two - The Train

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up getting finished later than I'd originally said, sorry about that! I hope you enjoy :)

Knock knock. 

Nico looked up to see the door slide open, a blond head peeking in, “Are you alone? Could we come in?”

Truthfully Nico just wanted to be alone, but he thought back to what Hades had told him.

“These wizards are in recovery. Make friends with them. If you can earn their trust, they will easily accept allies.” Hades said.

“Respectfully, Father, as are we. The war between camps wreaked havoc on our numbers, animosity is high, and the Apollo campers can barely keep up with demand for medical care-” Nico paused to take a breath, “What I’m trying to say, Father, is that we are rebuilding. We need everyone who might be able to help, and we don’t have much to offer as allies.”

“We need to be allies with these wizards,” Hades pressed on, “Maybe we don’t have much to offer now, but we will in the future. Things are happening. Things are changing Nico. We have to be ready.”

“What do you mean by changing?”

“Hecate created this world years ago and every moment holds the possibility of them learning to control the Mist. It’s worked in much the same way for them as for you demigods, but they yearn for knowledge.”

“But if they learned how to control the Mist..”

“I wouldn’t be much of a leap to learn about demigods. Hence, allies.”

Nico nodded, setting aside his phone. That wouldn’t be of much use to him once they got to the school, according to Hecate magic and modern technology didn’t mix very well. How very Forced Aesthetic of them. Nico supposed that was one way to keep students focused on their studies.

“Y-yeah,” Nico cleared his throat, “Yeah, c’mon in.”

“Thanks!” The blond girl smiled and slid the door open further, beckoning her friends inside with her. “I’m Luna!”

As the girl, Luna, sat down, a boy with brown hair holding a toad, another boy with dark hair and glasses, and a girl with dark skin and curly hair followed, sitting across from Nico.

“This is Neville,” she pointed to the boy holding the toad. The boy waved, Nico was hungry for olive tapenade. Neville Papperman was annoying, but there’s something to be said for a refined sense of taste.

“That’s Hermione and Harry,” Harry Potter. Not even a train ride in and he’s already met the guy who took down the biggest paper jam Nico had ever seen. Nice. They smiled at him. Making friends was ridiculously easy, no matter the Aphrodite cabin’s opinions on Nico’s social skills. 

“I’m Nico. It’s nice to meet you.”

“You’re American?” The boy with green eyes looked at him curiously. 

“I am. I was sent from my school to create a sort of allyship with Hogwarts.” Nico thought back to the cover story Hecate had given him.

“They are aware of American magic folk, but much of the history hasn’t been taught to the students. It’s a combination of self preservation and secrecy on behalf of Americans and ignorance on behalf of the Minister of Magic. The only school they really know of is Ilvermorny, which is the largest magical school in the country. Granted, Ilvermorny operates very similarly to Hogwarts.

The most important parts of your cover will revolve around the smaller, speciality schools scattered across the country. Try not to reveal too much about them, the Americans do keep them under wraps for a reason, but that would be why you’re joining the eighth years rather than the fifth years. 

You spent three years at Ilvermorny for basic magical training, before choosing a specific discipline and moving to the speciality school, Wellarock. A school that focuses on shadows and necromancy. 

I truly am sorry to make this harder for you Nico, but please keep in mind that if you tell the British magic folk that you specialize in shadow work and necromancy, they’ll see you as a dark wizard and might be weary of you.” 

Hecate did look remorseful about it, but the fact stood that Nico would have to give minimal information about himself, American magic society, and still create enough trust to form an ally with Hogwarts.

Nico grimaced, “Perfect.”

“We were sorry to have been unable to help in your recent hardships. At the same time you were battling, American schools were beginning to fight one another and we needed every resource possible to defend ourselves and settle disputes.” Nico dove into the explanations and history that Hecate had given him before he’d left.

Hermione looked at him, interested in the information. “I’m sure Hogwarts will be happy to know we have allies across the water, but why were the American schools fighting? I thought Ilvermorny was the only school in America.” 

“Ilvermorny is the main school, yes, but there are multiple schools across the country. As for the fighting, it’s a series of long stories and miscommunications that would take too long to get into now. I’d be happy to tell you about our history another day, but for now I’d like to hear more about Hogwarts.”

“Do you play quidditch?” Harry cut in looking interested in telling Nico about the school. That suited Nico just fine, truthfully he wasn’t completely certain he’d told them the correct information. There was a strong possibility some of what he’d told them was confidential. 

A knock came from the door and a boy with prominent freckles and red hair walked in.

“I swear you’re summoned whenever someone mentions Quidditch.” Neville looked like he wasn’t sure whether to be amused or stunned. 

“Oh so I walked in at the perfect time!” Ron moved to sit in between Harry and Hermione, pushing Luna to move and sit at the other end of Nico’s bench, she offered him a baby carrot. He accepted. 

“Yeah, if you’d gotten here any earlier you might’ve had to hear Hermione discussing history with the new kid.” Harry was outright laughing now. 

Ron joined in the laughter and noticed Nico for the first time. “What’s up, mate? Come to start 4th year? I heard a lot of folks are joining late since they were homeschooled until Voldemort was defeated.”

“First of all, I’m 15,” Ron did a double take at Nico’s accent. “Secondly, I’ll be joining in at 8th year. Americans do things differently magic-wise.” That’d be the understatement of the century. Nico should know, he was up on the gossip of almost every century. Ghosts are surprisingly chatty. 

“You’ll have classes with most of us then!” In Ron’s favor, he got over his shock of Nico being American quite fast. “Let us know if you need anything, yeah? Hogwarts can be confusing at first”

Nico blinked, unused to the kindness. “Y-yeah. I will. Thanks.” And wasn’t that an understatement? After spending ten minutes trying to get to platform 9 ¾ , Nico had given up and shadow traveled in. He tried to forget the feeling of embarrassment that ran through him watching the little eleven year old running through when he’d been bested by the brick wall. 

Hermione looked to the window where a large castle was starting to come into view. “We’d better get our robes on.” 

Harry and Ron stood up fast grabbing their bags. Harry turned to Nico, “It was nice to meet you. If we don’t meet up again, say ‘hi’ at dinner. Then we can finish talking about Quidditch.” His eyes shone with excitement. A pity Nico would have to tell him he couldn’t fly for fear of electrocution. Maybe he’d just say fear of heights, that would make a bit more sense. 

Nico watched the castle draw closer, hoping the information he’d gotten from Hecate would prove to be helpful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I love reading comments and getting feedback!  
> If school started for you recently, good luck!  
> You can find me on Tumblr @nymphiearon too!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> Reviews mean a lot :D
> 
> Please have a wonderful day, stay safe, happy, and healthy! :)


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